Electrical guide
The charger is the cheap part. The circuit behind it is where the decisions are, and getting them right before you buy hardware saves money and a second visit.
A standard 120 volt outlet gives you three to five miles of range per hour — fine for a plug-in hybrid, frustrating for anything with a big battery. A 240 volt Level 2 charger delivers 25 to 40 miles per hour, which turns a night in the garage into a full battery regardless of how you drove that day.
Hardwiring lets most chargers run at 48 amps rather than being capped at 40, and it removes the receptacle as a failure point. That matters: cheap 14-50 receptacles overheating under continuous EV load is a known problem. The outlet still makes sense if you rent, or expect to take the charger with you.
Not necessarily. Many homes on 200 amp service have headroom for a 48 amp charger. Homes on 100 amp service usually do not — but the answer is often a load management device rather than a full upgrade. These devices monitor total draw and throttle the charger when the dryer and the AC are both running, and they cost a fraction of a service upgrade. Any electrician who quotes you a panel upgrade without running a load calculation first is guessing.
Mount it so the cable reaches your charge port without crossing a walkway. Check which side your car's port is on and whether you back in. Cable lengths of 18 to 25 feet cover most garages; longer cables are heavier and more awkward to hang.
A dedicated double-pole breaker sized at 125% of the charger's continuous rating, correctly gauged copper to the mount, a weather-rated enclosure if it is outdoors, and a commissioning test at full current. Most jobs run three to five hours and cost $650 to $1,300 when the panel is reasonably close.
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